Miser Farebrother: A Novel (vol. 3 of 3)Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
General
Miser Farebrother: A Novel (vol. 3 of 3)
Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
Fiction
"The third article is the prisoner's handkerchief, which her aunt took
from her pocket when she returned in the morning. There were stains of
blood upon the handkerchief, which the prosecution declares was the
blood of the murdered man. The prisoner declares that the blood
proceeded from scratches she received by stumbling in the dark against
fences and coming in contact with the branches of trees. That she did
sustain some such slight wounds is undoubtedly true; and although the
weight of conflicting evidence as to the blood-stains on the
handkerchief is about equal, the theory of the prosecution is
strengthened by independent circumstances in connection with the murder.
"What Mrs. Pamflett knows of the strange and sudden visit of the
prisoner to Parksides at midnight need not here be recapitulated. Her
evidence has been printed in our columns on three occasions: first when
the inquest on the body was held; again, when the prisoner was brought
before the magistrate and committed for trial; and again, at greater
length, during the trial just ended. What passed between her and the
prisoner, the incident of the knife with the horn handle with which the
deed was done, the high words in the grounds between the prisoner and
her father, especially those uttered by the prisoner: 'I will do as I
please, and go where I please. You ought to have been dead long ago! You
had better be careful!'--all this has been fully reported. The visit of
a strange man to Miser Farebrother on this night is still a mystery. It
was hoped by the prosecution that the endeavour to trace this man would
have been successful, or that he himself would have voluntarily come
forward to give evidence, but the hope has not been fulfilled. He
remains in hiding, and will probably so continue to remain. The theory
of the prosecution is a feasible one--that this man's visits to Miser
Farebrother being paid in secret, his business was of a questionable
nature, the revealment of which would bring him into trouble. Great care
and caution were always displayed on the occasion of these visits, and
the minute description of his dress and appearance given by Mrs.
Pamflett is of little value, in the absence of any other evidence
respecting him, so long as he chooses to remain hidden.
"The prisoner's statement as to what occurred, so far as she can
remember, from the time she left her aunt's house in London on the night
of the murder to the hour she returned to it on the following morning,
is as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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